Souvenir From Hawaii — Macadamia Nuts
When visiting Hawaii, don’t forget to pack your swimsuit, flip-flops, sunscreen — and Costco card.
Seriously.
The cavernous membership warehouse store has some of the best — and best priced — Hawaiian souvenirs you can find. I’m talkin’ surf T-shirts, bags of taro chips, lilikoi cookies, Kona blend coffee, and of course, macadamia nuts. My husband had to buy another tote bag for the plane for all the goodies he brought back home on our trip to the islands last year.
Me? I was content with a big bag of macadamias for a steal.
After all, it’s always good to have a ready supply for when the baking mood hits.
And it did big-time with this recipe for “Macadamia and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies” from Alice Medrich’s “Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy: Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies” (Artisan), of which I received a review copy. Only, I changed it up, substituting dark chocolate for white — TCHO Dark Chocolate Disks 68 Percent ($7.98 for 8 ounces) to be exact, of which I also received a sample. With macadamias one of the richest tasting nuts around, I prefer them with the slight bitter-earthiness of dark chocolate rather than the often cloyingly saccharine white chocolate.
The cookie dough needs to be refrigerated for at least two hours or overnight, so plan accordingly.
They bake up crunchy yet tender, thanks to ground up oats, which complement the texture of the chopped macadamias.
Plus, they make me think of sand and surf — even if I’m a long way from there now.
Macadamia and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies
(Makes about 36 cookies)
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup (4.5 ounces) dry-roasted salted macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup (6 ounces) dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate disks that have been roughly chopped
Pulverize oats in food processor or blender until fine. Add flour, baking soda, and salt, and pulse to combine. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine melted butter with sugars and vanilla. Whisk in egg. Stir in the flour mixture just until all dry ingredients are moistened. Let mixture cool for a few minutes if it is at all warm. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and preferably overnight.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
Remove dough from the refrigerator to soften. Scoop rounded tablespoons of dough and place about 2 inches apart on the ungreased or lined cookie sheets. Bake until cookies are deep golden brown, 13 to 15 minutes. Rotate pans from top to bottom and from front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. For unlined pans, use a metal spatula to transfer cookies to racks to cool; for lined pans, set pans or just the liners on racks. Cool the cookies completely before storing or stacking. May be kept in an airtight container for several days.
Adapted from “Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy: Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies” by Alice Medrich
More Alice Medrich Recipes to Make: Pebbly Beach Fruit Squares
And: Nibby Pecan Cookies
And: Sesame Seed Cake
And: Olive Oil and Sherry Pound Cake
Plus Scenes From Hawaii: All About Kona Coffee
And: Honolulu’s Amazing Fish Auction
And: Maui Dining
Those nuts are just amazing and so are those cookies!
Cheers,
Rosa
these cookies look to die for,…so tasty!! 🙂
I love macadamia nuts but they are so expensive over here in Belgium! But I agree, they are lovely & tasty nuts!
YUM! I LOVE Macadamia Nuts! Thanks for the tip about the Costco Card. I would’ve never thought of that! We’re definitely going to Hawaii for our long overdue honeymoon (hopefully) this year! Lucky you with all your free samples! How can I jump on that boat?
Dear Carolyn,
Macadamia nuts are delicious except they have one of the highest fat content of all nuts 🙁
Macadamia nuts in chocolate chip cookies are classic! I wonder who first thought of it? Wonder if it was Mrs. Fields? Anywho, I actually like to just eat them roasted. Re: comments about it being filled with fat, my understanding is it the good fat, like you find in olive oil. So pile them on! 😉
Oh, the loveliness of macadamias! Delightful cookies no doubt 🙂
i often see white chocolate with macadamia nuts, but it’s high time dark chocolate got a chance to get in there too! 🙂
I could never resist anything with nuts and chocolate. Bring it on!
Mmmmmmmm… I love macadamia nuts! I recently made white chocolate macadamia cookies, but I must try your dark chocolate treat! Looks delicious!
where do you buy rolled oats at? I see Old Fashion & Quick Oats, don’t remember seeing rolled oats.
ArleneT: Rolled oats are essentially just good ol’ Quaker Oats. So, yes, feel free to use the old-fsahioned kind.
I suppose I don’t think of macadamias as hard to come by – every supermarket in Sydney stocks them.
But Costco probably has a deal where a ton of nuts is 3.50, if you buy three tons worth.
Hehe I love that you dispense shopping advice too! Because that’s also as important as food (especially when it involves shopping for food!) 😛
I love macadamia cookies and yours look so inviting and delicious and I bet they’re chewy in the middle. But who knew Costco was alive and well in Hawaii. xx
White chocolate mac nut cookies have long been a favorite of mine…and I’ve made this recipe before. It’s hands down the best!
Oh these cookies look amazing! I am going to have to keep this recipe in my favorite file.
I am so ready to try these….I have a favorite Mac nut shortbread but with the dark chocolate, they have to be yummy!!
That Alice Medrich cookbook is a good one! I’ve made a few things out of it already and I’m totally satisfied. Now if only I could go to Hawaii to get some of those ingredients. For now, LA grocery stores will have to do. And neat tip about Costco! I never would have thought to go there on a vacation, but it’s such a good point that Costco would carry local items!
Yum, macadamia nuts. I try to stock up on them whenever I’m in the U.S. Sounds delicious in this recipe. 🙂
Give Ahualoa Farms macadamia nuts a try! They are some of the tastiest, and fresh from the Big Island of Hawaii.